Northwestern/Illinois Football game at Wrigley?

[J.R.]

People will blame the Cubs, but this is all on the schools and the conference.

 

I'm sure any future games (revenue) are finished pending changes to the grandstand that could be undertaken in the renovation.

[SpongeWorthy]

Do you guys get ESPNU in HD?

[Jon]

Do you guys get ESPNU in HD?

Standard on DirecTV. Picture quality pretty much on par with ESPN/2.

[ZipDog]

They should (and still could if they wanted to) used the Bears configuration.

 

They said they couldn't and quite obviously they cannot since the game is tomorrow.

 

You folks were right and I was wrong. The Cubs.com site stated the following:

 

"Since the Bears played, additional seats have been added at Wrigley along the left-field line, which made the north-south configuration unworkable for the Illinois-Northwestern game."

 

I just wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth, that's all.

[UMFan83]

They should (and still could if they wanted to) used the Bears configuration.

 

They said they couldn't and quite obviously they cannot since the game is tomorrow.

 

You folks were right and I was wrong. The Cubs.com site stated the following:

 

"Since the Bears played, additional seats have been added at Wrigley along the left-field line, which made the north-south configuration unworkable for the Illinois-Northwestern game."

 

I just wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth, that's all.

 

I'm prettysure that info is posted in this thread somewhere.

[Jon]

The explanation of what transpired is rather strange. On Wednesday, the head of SEC officiating saw photos posted online and notified the head of Big Ten officiating about a the rule that states endzones must have 12 yards after it ends in facilities that allow for that and 6 yards for those that don't. Nobody in the Big Ten knew about the rule and never thought there was one because of 2 bowl games that have fields with similar dimensions. Nobody knows right now as to why those games were let to happen, but I'm guessing those involved didn't know about the rule. The Big Ten also stated that they only look at on-campus facilities and Wrigley fell out of their responsibility for looking at the field.

 

So this whole process started Wednesday with everyone involved and the one direction was the best they came up with.

 

Really strange.

[Flames24Rulz]

The explanation of what transpired is rather strange. On Wednesday, the head of SEC officiating saw photos posted online and notified the head of Big Ten officiating about a the rule that states endzones must have 12 yards after it ends in facilities that allow for that and 6 yards for those that don't. Nobody in the Big Ten knew about the rule and never thought there was one because of 2 bowl games that have fields with similar dimensions. Nobody knows right now as to why those games were let to happen, but I'm guessing those involved didn't know about the rule. The Big Ten also stated that they only look at on-campus facilities and Wrigley fell out of their responsibility for looking at the field.

 

So this whole process started Wednesday with everyone involved and the one direction was the best they came up with.

 

Really strange.

 

Leave it to the SEC to [expletive] everything up.

[Jon]

The 2009 Emerald Bowl:

 

http://usctrojans.cstv.com/blog/assets_c/2009/12/1206attpark-thumb-640x425-3248.jpg

 

Clearly not 6 yards behind that endzone. The whole thing is strange.

 

FYI, the game will be carried on ESPN3.com.

[Flames24Rulz]

The 2009 Emerald Bowl:

 

http://usctrojans.cstv.com/blog/assets_c/2009/12/1206attpark-thumb-640x425-3248.jpg

 

Clearly not 6 yards behind that endzone. The whole thing is strange.

 

FYI, the game will be carried on ESPN3.com.

 

Apparently the Emerald Bowl asked for clearance from the NCAA and Phillips never did.

[Jon]

Apparently the Emerald Bowl asked for clearance from the NCAA and Phillips never did.

Then the question would be why they couldn't/didn't get clearance from the NCAA considering the NCAA gave them permission to only go in one direction.

[Sosa21MVP]

Dang. I mean half the fun of watching this game was going to be seeing some kid run into a brick wall. What a buzz kill. ;)

[E.J.]

This game is quickly becoming a joke. I understand why the game is happening, but let's hope this is the last game at Wrigley for some time.

[UMFan83]

If anyone is interested, I took some pictures of the setup around Wrigley Field tonight while walking my dogs. Photo quality is 'meh' with my iPhone but you get the idea...

 

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs992.snc4/76503_714280763681_22000467_39447646_1758860_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs1224.snc4/155612_714280788631_22000467_39447647_4120553_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs588.ash2/151090_714280449311_22000467_39447628_5162987_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs488.ash2/76172_714281302601_22000467_39447673_6417725_n.jpg

 

A bunch more inside..

 

 

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs580.ash2/150252_714281197811_22000467_39447666_4754689_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs1160.snc4/150251_714282115971_22000467_39447705_5602032_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs1196.snc4/154859_714282190821_22000467_39447711_4082184_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs1174.snc4/154631_714282385431_22000467_39447722_5428144_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs994.snc4/76793_714282460281_22000467_39447726_448309_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs1204.snc4/155622_714281452301_22000467_39447677_2263786_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs593.ash2/154594_714281811581_22000467_39447690_3713224_n.jpg

 

[Flames24Rulz]

Looks cool. Regardless of the whole end zone fiasco, it should still be a fun day.

[bcl412]

I don't really care about this game that much but all this looking at Wrigley makes me miss baseball already.

[J.R.]

I really can't believe there won't be a resolution to this.

 

1) People paid good money to sit on the first base side and in the RF bleachers. Someone in the Big Ten, with Northwestern or Illinois should be raising hell on their behalf.

 

2) Precedent was set with the Emerald Bowl game in San Francisco. If there was indeed some kind of exemption granted, then why on earth don't they push one through for Wrigley?

 

3) So a baseball player can run full-speed into the bricks, but the armored football players are afraid of a padded wall? A padded wall that could easily be avoided by not throwing in its vicinity?

[NeifiIsMyHomeBoy]

I really can't believe there won't be a resolution to this.

 

1) People paid good money to sit on the first base side and in the RF bleachers. Someone in the Big Ten, with Northwestern or Illinois should be raising hell on their behalf.

 

2) Precedent was set with the Emerald Bowl game in San Francisco. If there was indeed some kind of exemption granted, then why on earth don't they push one through for Wrigley?

 

3) So a baseball player can run full-speed into the bricks, but the armored football players are afraid of a padded wall? A padded wall that could easily be avoided by not throwing in its vicinity?

 

This was a move that had to be made for safety. Running into the bricks is much different than being pushed into the bricks by a 250 pound linebacker at full speed.

[erik316wttn]

I just think the most embarrassing part of this whole fiasco is that the game has been in the planning stages for how long now and just yesterday this "safety" issue came up. Someone dropped the ball big time.

[Magnetic Curses]

I just think the most embarrassing part of this whole fiasco is that the game has been in the planning stages for how long now and just yesterday this "safety" issue came up. Someone dropped the ball big time.

 

now that is some hard-hitting insight and analysis.

[Jon]

It is amazing down here. And getting down here at 4:30 was so worth it. Got a first row spot, though I was about 5 people too close to the desk for most shots. Still got some airtime for my signs, though.

 

They did an amazing job with everything here.

[J.R.]

This was a move that had to be made for safety. Running into the bricks is much different than being pushed into the bricks by a 250 pound linebacker at full speed.

 

It's not like the wall is out in the middle of the field, or would be popping up randomly in the players' way.

[bcl412]

I really can't believe there won't be a resolution to this.

 

1) People paid good money to sit on the first base side and in the RF bleachers. Someone in the Big Ten, with Northwestern or Illinois should be raising hell on their behalf.

 

2) Precedent was set with the Emerald Bowl game in San Francisco. If there was indeed some kind of exemption granted, then why on earth don't they push one through for Wrigley?

 

3) So a baseball player can run full-speed into the bricks, but the armored football players are afraid of a padded wall? A padded wall that could easily be avoided by not throwing in its vicinity?

 

So a team is supposed to game plan so they don't have players hitting the wall?

[erik316wttn]

I just think the most embarrassing part of this whole fiasco is that the game has been in the planning stages for how long now and just yesterday this "safety" issue came up. Someone dropped the ball big time.

 

now that is some hard-hitting insight and analysis.

 

And an even better critique!

[Soul]

I think this will be fun, last minute rule change and all.

[NeifiIsMyHomeBoy]

This was a move that had to be made for safety. Running into the bricks is much different than being pushed into the bricks by a 250 pound linebacker at full speed.

 

It's not like the wall is out in the middle of the field, or would be popping up randomly in the players' way.

 

It's not like paralysis is awesome.